Mobilegeddon – Google Mobile Friendly Update Hits
Sounds like the name of an apocalyptic movie title but it isn’t.
Google Mobile Friendly Update is very real and will effect your website and business (if it hasn’t already).
I know what you are thinking,
“here we go again with some hyped up Google update”
Think that at your own risk, the 21st April 2015 has come and gone and considering it has also been referred to as; “Mobilepocalyse, Mopocalypse or Mobocalypse” as well as Mobilegeddon it’s only a matter of time before we start reading reports of big drops in Google search rankings.
It’s Bigger than the Google Panda and Penguin Update
(You can read more about Google Panda and Penguin in my earlier articles
– Did you say Google Panda or Kung Fu Panda?
– I’m Sharing The Greatest Google Algorithm SEO Cheat Sheet)
This update will effect how your website ranks when people search for businesses offering services and products like yours (can you afford to gamble and lose business? I definitely can not).
I have been pushing, developing and advising my clients to ensure their websites are mobile friendly for a longtime now and it seems Google are now making sure this is the norm to ensure a great user experience.
User/customer experience is always at the fore-front of all business activity (well it should be in my opinion) being even more important today as the use of mobile phones to access online content continues to grow.
Your potential customers experience should be excellent no matter how they are accessing your website (we’ve all been to a poor website having to zoom in etc. its not fun).
Still think it’s not a big deal?
Well as usual don’t just take my word for it. Google have warned about this with Zineb Ait Bahajji a Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google being quoted as saying:
“the upcoming mobile-friendly ranking algorithm that will launch on April 21st will have more of an impact on Google’s search results than the Google Panda update and the Google Penguin update did.”
On the 26th February 2015 Google also released a post for all Webmasters, stating their intentions in 2 points. However, for the purpose of this post point 1 is the most important and relevant to your website:
“1. More mobile-friendly websites in search results
Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results.”
This is huge considering the number of people that read and search online content using their mobile phones. In fact, how are you reading his very article? I’m guessing it’s on your mobile phone right?
Although these updates appear to be aimed at search results for people searching (Googling) using smart phones or mobile enabled phones, it is only a matter of time before we see if your website rankings are also effected when people search on a Desktop, Laptop or Tablet.
My immediate thinking is this will impact your website straight away and I don’t think I’m alone in thinking this way.
You may still have some questions so head over to Google to see the answers to some frequently asked questions.
Take Action Now, Seriously like Now
If you are lucky, Google’s robots haven’t looked at your website (re-crawled) YET, in which case you can do something about it now (and I mean right now! as you are already behind!).
The first thing to do is test you’re website to see if it is mobile friendly by going to Google:
You should hopefully get a result like this:
If you’re website passes that is great, however if it doesn’t Google should tell you why.
You can learn more about what you need to do by going to Google Webmaster Central and reading this article “rolling out mobile friendly update”
Customer behaviour continues to change and it seems Google is watching this closely too. We have to either keep up or see where its going so we don’t fall behind and lose customers.
Thanks for reading, please feel free to Like, Share and leave your Comments.